Travel Tip: Pop Culture and Cinema in GermanyEnnio Marchetto: The Living Paper Cartoon

The Italian phenomenon Ennio Marchetto is a transformation artist who uses the art of origami to create performance work. With his physical comedy, a soundtrack and paper costumes Ennio morphs into over 50 personalities from Lady Gaga and Eminem to Fred Astaire and Mona Lisa

Ennio: The Living Paper Cartoon is directed and designed by Ennio Marchetto and Sosthen Hennekam.

Ennio was born in 1960 in Venice, Italy next door to the house of Carlo Goldoni. The son of an espresso machine repair engineer, everybody expected Ennio to continue the family tradition – except him. Inspired by the Disney cartoons he watched in childhood, the modern choreography of Pina Bausch and growing up amidst the Venetian Carnivale, Ennio daydreamed himself into flights of fancy – amusing his family and friends – with visions of Marilyn Monroe dressed in white paper. At the beginning of the 1980s Ennio used to make extravagant costumes and masks for the re-emerging carnivale. Growing from strength to strength, his dream became reality with the creation of his first cabaret show winning him the prestigious Golden Lion Award, at the Venetian Entertainment Festival and The Golden Mosquito award for comedy. When he met his collaborative partner Sosthen Hennekam, a fashion and costume designer, they developed enough paper characters to create a full one-hour show. Only a year later London based producer Glynis Henderson invited Ennio to perform at The Edinburgh Festival. He quickly became a cult hit and achieved massive critical acclaim. Things started to move very quickly and in 1994, after several UK Tours, West-End runs and International festivals, Ennio was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment. That same year Granada Television made a one-hour documentary called ‘Celebrations, Paper Marilyn’ about Ennio’s life and career. A year later, Ennio appeared at the first European MTV Music Awards in Berlin, together with several stars who were in his repertoire at the time such as Prince, George Michael and Bjork. For his off-Broadway run in 1999, Ennio was nominated for a Drama Desk Award. Shows in San Francisco and Los Angeles followed. In L.A. the show won the Garland Award. In the summer of 2001 he performed at Elton John’s ‘White Tie and Tiara Ball’ – an important AIDS benefit held every year at Elton John’s private estate in Oxfordshire. Ennio has since continued his charity work having performed at this year’s Lifeball in Vienna. Ennio has performed in over 70 countries world wide, everywhere from Singapore to Mexico.